If you’re currently trying to figure out what works best for you on your weight loss journey, chances are you’ve seen and tried countless tips.
One of the latest weight loss trends that’s taken over the internet is the supplement berberine, which has gained a lot of popularity for its potential to lend a helping hand to those who want to lose weight.
What exactly is berberine, though? Keep reading to find out berberine’s many health benefits, as well as how long it takes to help with weight loss specifically. This supplement could very well be the perfect fit for you!
What is Berberine?
Before detailing the many health benefits of berberine, we should first establish what this supplement is and where it comes from.
In a nutshell, berberine is a bioactive compound, specifically an alkaloid which means that it contains nitrogen.This compound can be extracted from many different plants, such as the phellodendron, European barberry, Oregon grape, goldenseal, and goldthread.
All of the above plants belong to the aptly named Berberidaceae family. Berberine is very natural, and its bright yellow color also makes it a very good dye. However, it’s safe to consume— despite the fact that it has a somewhat bitter taste.
You can’t apply berberine topically or externally, however. It will be toxic for your skin. The supplement can only be ingested orally, via a pill or a powder.
While berberine is becoming very popular as a natural remedy now, it has a long history of medicinal use. The first evidence of berberine’s health benefits is from over three thousand years ago in China and South Asia.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, berberine primarily was used for gastrointestinal issues. These are the most well-known origins of the compound’s medicinal origins, but there’s record of berberine-containing plants used for natural remedies in South America, Europe, and the Middle East.
So, how does berberine work exactly? Well, first off it will be absorbed in your small intestine and then enter into your bloodstream.
Once there, the berberine will travel to many different cells and bond to your molecules in order to activate, deactivate, or promote different enzymes in your body depending on what they do.
One of the main purposes of berberine is to activate AMPK, or AMP-activated protein kinase. This specific protein can help regulate your levels of metabolism and energy, both essential elements of weight loss.
What makes berberine super special, though, is that it can target multiple areas at once, so it can help to strengthen good cells while also weakening and fighting off cells caused by disease.
Now that you have a pretty good idea of how berberine works, let’s get into some more detail about the various health benefits!
Benefits of Berberine
There are lots of reasons why you might want to start taking berberine supplements, and we’re here to fill you in!
For starters, berberine can help balance your gut microbiota and overall intestinal health by encouraging growth of good bacteria, which is absolutely essential. It can even reduce harmful bacteria, too, which has been associated with many diseases such as diabetes, colon cancer, cardiovascular diseases, etc.
On the subject of cardiovascular health, berberine can also be beneficial for your heart! Berberine can help to lower your cholesterol, which is one of the leading causes of heart disease. By reducing the amount of lipids in your blood, berberine can reduce the risk!
Some studies have found that berberine and hypertension medication used together lowered blood pressure more than the medication alone.
Additionally, people with heart disease often struggle with irregular heartbeats and fatigue, but there is evidence that berberine can help to reduce these symptoms.
Another super important benefit of berberine is the fact that it can help to lower blood sugar. This is one of the qualities of berberine that has been researched the most, and it has specifically been found to help lower glucose levels of people with Type 2 diabetes.
Usually, people with Type 2 diabetes have very high blood sugar, either because their bodies don’t have enough insulin or their cells are insulin resistant. Berberine can help with both by regulating how your body processes insulin.
Berberine both increases the amount of insulin that your body produces naturally and decreases the insulin resistance of your cells. It can also help prevent your liver from creating more unnecessary glucose.
The efficacy of berberine in the case of lowering blood sugar has been proven as effective as some diabetes medications, though you should of course continue taking your regular meds in order to any supplements you may want to introduce.
Some other things that berberine may be able to help with are symptoms of depression, inflammation, infection, and even reducing the growth and spread of cancer cells. More research needs to be done into all of these, as well as berberine in general, but it looks like the already long list of benefits of berberine just keeps increasing with more studies!
Last but certainly not least of berberine’s benefits is what it can do to help with weight loss, the main reason why many people are interested in the supplement right now.
However, before we go into detail about one of the best benefits of berberine, we’re going to list out some possible side effects that you may want to know about before you choose to try it.
Potential Side Effects
Something super important to take into consideration before you try any new supplement, not just berberine, is the possibility that it may not interact well with your other medication.
Berberine can unfortunately interact poorly with some other medications, such as cyclosporine. If you’re on any prescribed medications or have a pre-existing medical condition, you should definitely consult a healthcare professional before deciding if berberine is the right choice for you.
Additionally, keep in mind that the dosage regimen for taking berberine is pretty strict. Most commonly, people will take three 500 mg pills a day for a total of 1,500 mg daily. This is due to the short half-life of berberine, so you have to take it often in order to ensure you are reaping its effects. You should also take it before meals.
One of berberine’s established benefits is that it can lower blood pressure, but depending on this person this might not actually be a good thing. If you are someone who already suffers from low blood pressure, berberine may not be for you.
For the most part, though, berberine is considered very safe. Like most supplements it hasn’t needed to be approved by the FDA, but the most common side effects of berberine are low-stakes and have to do with digestion.
Some people who take berberine have reported diarrhea, constipation, flatulence, bloating, nausea, and overall abdominal discomfort. You can typically get rid of these types of side effects by reducing your dose, though!
Now that you know some potential side effects, we can go into how berberine helps with weight loss and how long the supplement may take to show results.
Weight Loss: How and When?
What about berberine helps with weight loss, and how long will the process take exactly? Both very important questions, which we will now endeavor to answer.
The effect that berberine has on weight loss comes from previously discussed benefits; specifically, berberine’s effect on glucose and insulin. Insulin also regulates fat and protein management, and people with insulin resistant cells will more often feel hungry.
Berberine’s AMPK enzyme can also help regulate your appetite, as well as influence your body’s fat composition and metabolism in positive ways.
Notable studies have been performed into how berberine helps with weight loss, and the proof is in the pudding. Berberine tends to be most helpful towards people with a BMI over thirty.
In a twelve week long study where participants took 500 mg of berberine three times a day, the commended dose above, they lost about five pounds of weight on average, as well as 3.6% of their body fat.
More research is definitely needed, especially with all the interest in berberine as a weight loss supplement lately. However, it has also been found to reduce body mass index, body weight, belly fat, and levels of C-reactive protein in other studies.
Additionally, berberine may hinder the growth of fat cells at the molecular level, which could definitely be a big help in terms of weight loss.
What will the actual timeline look like, though? How soon after starting on berberine supplements can you expect to see weight loss results?
Well, you definitely won’t start experiencing the effects of berberine right after. It’s a supplement that becomes effective with prolonged use, and some studies have found that you might not notice any change for up to three months.
However, after those three months have gone by, you can expect to see reductions in body fat, your weight, as well as your cholesterol and triglycerides.
The above results came from participants who took 500mg three times daily, but even if you take a slightly lower dose you may reap the rewards of berberine— in a study that used the latter dosage participants had lower BMIs as a result.
These studies definitely demonstrate clear weight loss benefits of berberine, especially considering that participants didn’t alter their lifestyles in any other significant way.
So, it’s possible that you too could experience significant weight loss as a result of taking berberine even without making any other changes.
There’s no way to know exactly how your body will respond to berberine supplements. However, if you’re wondering how long it will most likely take, the most concrete answer is what existing studies have come up with— twelve weeks or three months.
More studies can certainly be done, but what we do know about berberine’s weight loss benefits right now makes a convincing argument in favor of trying it out!
Our Product
If you’re now interested in trying berberine and its benefits out for yourself, you may want to try our Berberine Plus supplements. This product is designed to strengthen your immune system, boost your gut health, and support your blood sugar levels.
Berberine has many other benefits, which you well know by now, and our product comes with a thirty day supply— sixty easy to consume capsules that you take twice a day for 500 mg of berberine. You should take them with at least eight ounces of water.
These supplements also contain Vitamin E, niacin, manganese, cinnamon, medium chain triglyceride, and milk thistle extract. Please take these other ingredients into account before trying our berberine supplements to make sure you aren’t allergic
If you’re considering taking berberine daily to see if it truly helps with weight loss, or for any other reason, consider trying out our product!
